The building: Bet yad labanim building for the commemoration of fallen soldiers from the city of Tel Aviv
Location: Tel aviv
Building Year: 1960
Architect: Israel Lothan, Zvi Toren
Landscape and Garden Architecture: Avraham Karavan
This building, which commemorates Tel Aviv-born casualties of Israel’s wars, is
half-hidden, half-buried in a large garden at the center of the city, where it appears
as a space of absence. Two pathways pass through the garden, connecting the parallel
streets that flank it on either side.
A wide path forks off one of the roads, and
runs along a five-meter-high wall bearing the name of the memorial.The vegetation growing on the other side of the
wall can be glimpsed at its top. Another garden flanks the other side of the path.
The passage along the wall isolates the viewer from the urban environment, and directs his gaze along the wall to the building
entrance. The entrance hall leads out into an inner courtyard that is open to the sky, and
to an adjacent plaza. The walls of this courtyard are engraved with the names of Tel Aviv
residents killed in the War of Independence. This courtyard faces a memorial hall containing the names of those who fell in all
of Israel’s other wars. The building also contains a library and an auditorium for various
cultural activities – especially activities for children.
